the sky was vibrant.

the sky was vibrant today. so blue, God could roll it up, wrap a crayola paper on it and sell it in a crayon box for heavenly bodies to color with. that vibrant. and when the sky is vibrant, i want to do vibrant things. like plant a garden. paint the house. write a book. adopt a couple orphans. cure cancer. you know, normal things.

but being that i hate disheartenment from unachieved lofty goals, i settled for alternate vibrancy. a bike ride.

a bike ride where i vibrantly cranked the pedals on my not-so-vibrant piece-of-crap bike. well, it’s not really mine. it’s brandyn’s old one, and it’s very small. and i know i look like this riding it, but it’s okay because i’m getting fantastic exercise. fantastic because the gears are kinda broken and it’s stuck on the one that feels like the chains are attached to two lead bricks.

so i pedaled, exhaustively cycling through the lead brick rotations until my thighs twitched and stung and sweat soaked my dyed hair past its already cleopatran blackness. it was a mess. but lainey was content, pulled behind the rickety clown bike in her new little cart my dad found on craigslist. in fact, now that i think of it, the cart i’m sure only added to the clownishness of it all, and when i had to stop in the back of the neighborhood to take a rest and lay the bike down in the middle of the street (broken kickstand, you know) with the cart all cock-eyed and lainey crying…well, now i’m just laughing hard.

if our life was the cover of a book, it would so not be glossy. it would be torn and pasted with old food and lost somewhere in the back of the library.

Comments

Pah! Who wants a glossy life anyway? Much better to have a lived-in life. If our life was the cover of a book, we would be right there with you at the back of the library!p.s. I love your cycling shoes!

Ode to those who can cling to their dignity when all their props are removed! No training wheels–this is for real! Ride, baby, ride…wind in your face, in the wrong gear…with no fenders and mud leaving a streak up your backside…who cares…you’re moving while others are safely standing still. You go girl!

You are such an artist. Your photography is amazing of course, but what blows me away is how you create a seamless flow of movement with your words and images that tell a beautiful story, even if it’s just a bike ride gone wrong. Every post is a pleasure to read.